Prior art gate latches are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 6,058,747 to Doyle et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,513,351 to Clark. The Doyle et al. patent discloses a gravity latch which includes a housing for pivotally mounting a closure member and a cylinder lock located below the closure member. Doyle et al. disclose a remote actuator mounted on the opposite side of the fence, etc., from where the housing is located for moving the closure member. Also, the remote actuator may include a cylinder lock to hold it in a locked position so that the actuator cannot be operated.
The Clark patent also discloses a gravity latch which includes a housing for pivotally mounting a closure member and a cylinder lock situated below the closure member. Clark also discloses a remote actuator mounted oh the opposite side of the fence, etc., from where the housing is located. Also, the remote actuator may include a cylinder lock which is connected through a gearing system to allow for locking the closure member from the remote location.
Both the Doyle et al. and Clark patents disclose the use of a front housing defining an upward facing slot through which extends a tab for mounting a knob for manual operation of the closure member.
However, in comparison to the prior art discussed above, the gate lock device of the present invention has the advantages of simplicity, increased robustness, reduced costs, among other advances in the art. An advantage of the present invention in comparison to the devices illustrated in the prior art above, is found in the simplicity of the design. This simplicity allows for an increased robustness of the device and a less costly manufacturing process. Thus, the device of the present invention performs the locking functions similar to the Clark patent but does so with a reduced number of components as compared to the multiple gear system disclosed in the Clark patent. Furthermore, the device of the present invention has an improved design in the latch knob area wherein the front housing has a downwardly sloping slot through which the manual retraction element for the gravity latch extends and is provided with a manually graspable handle. This arrangement helps to keep debris from the environment (e.g., leaves, trash) from entering the slot and hindering the gravity latch operation.
In addition, the device of the present invention uses the same mounting plates on both the front and rear units, respectively, both of which are removable to allow for adjustment during assembly to permit the gate lock device to be mounted in a left or right hand orientation. An additional advantage over the prior art is that, by separating the key-actuated lock on the rear housing unit from the manually operable push button for the linear actuator on the rear housing unit, the overall rear housing unit does not protrude as far as the prior art and permits different styling options to be used.